Hudson -- The Board of Education gave a unanimous nod July 18 to a 3-year contact with the 218-member Ohio Association of Public School Employees Local 372, which will run from July 1 to June 30, 2017.

The local represents district support staff including custodial staff, food service workers, secretarial, maintenance and special education aides.

Support staff approved the tentative contract earlier this summer. The Board approved the bargaining agreement by a 5-0 vote at its July 28 meeting.

The contract will give members a 2 percent pay increase each year of the contract with normal advancement on the salary schedule.

In the second year of the contract, an employee performance pilot will be put into place which will include a more formalized, consistent evaluation procedure based on a stipend program, according to Superintendent Phil Herman.

Union members can accumulate performance points through the program to be eligible for a one-time stipend to be paid in 2016-17.

The contract also increases employee insurance premiums 1 percent each year, from the previous 15 percent. However, if an employee takes part in the wellness program, he/she will not be subject to the increase, Herman said.

"The needs of the students were front and center throughout the process, while recognizing, balancing and respecting the Board's financial responsibilities to the community and the extraordinary contributions and prior sacrifices of the teachers and support staff," Herman said of the OAPSE and Hudson Education Association contracts, which were both approved July 28.

Board President Davis Zuro called both contracts "the product of good faith bargaining that represents compensation-based evaluations and hard work."

"The employees of our school district dedicate themselves daily to providing an educational program that maximizes the intellectual, physical, social and emotional development of each child served, Zuro said. "The district does a good job of meeting its obligations to the community while making the best possible use of each and every tax dollar received."

Requests for the full contact can be made by calling the treasurer's office at 330-653-1270.